Well, I didn't get to publish this until Tuesday, October 10, so the Sunday date is not correct. I was interrupted several times as I was putting the blog entry together, also, importing pictures wasn't going well, so I saved the whole thing as a draft and came back piecemeal. Today I'll finish it.

Yesterday (Monday) was another glorious day at Joe's Pond. Not many boats on the water, but the fortunate few who were had a beautifully warm day. Things are pretty quiet around the pond, and several times during the day I heard flocks of geese flying overhead. Whenever I hear them I stop what I'm doing and look up. Sometimes they are too high and I fail to locate them, but most of the time they seem to come off the pond and circle a few times at the head of the pond to get their bearings and let some of the slow pokes catch up and get in formation. We have to watch for them through the trees as they gain altitude, and usually strike a nice "vee" just west of our house, heading south.

On our walks we're seeing lots of wooley caterpillars and monarch butterflies, too. I love hearing the crickets this time of year. The bluejays are noisier now and a few chickadees are coming out of the woods. They are all signs of the coming winter, like the leaves turning and falling. Near the pond we lost lots of the leaves over the weekend. There was a gentle breeze and the leaves seemed to shower down everywhere. This morning as we drove around the pond, most of the maple leaves are down, but the birches and poplars are holding onto their bright yellow dressings. The tamaracs haven't turned yet, but that will soon.

Here are some pictures taken this morning on Old Homestead Road. We stopped to chat with Dave Lavely and Bruce Brooks as they worked on the Desrocher's new camp. It's going to be lovely, with radiant heating in the floors so they can hang out here longer in the fall or come for winter vacations if they want. Top picture is taken from the road, the lower picture from the waterfront, and that's Bruce on the ladder. You can see Dave's legs inside.

Next door, Mary Ellen Stover is doing some renovations, too. And
down the road we saw where the bushes have been cut back - the work Don Sherwood told us about that the Town of Danville did for us. That makes it much easier to meet other cars and to see ahead.

We then went to the JPA Recreation Field to see how the addition on the end of the pavilion looks. The paving has been extended and provision made for water runoff. Looks as if it will be a good addition to the facility.

I'll finish off with one more picture of our maple tree. By week's end, we will likely have some snowflakes to dress up the scenery a bit. Just about on schedule.